Follow Up to Medicated Mothers/Parents

I just wanted to post a few links from mothers who responded to this controversy in a more gracious manner than I.
Please see the following posts and stick around their blogs for the rest of their great writing and information:

• I am a Medicated Mom! by Motherhood is not for Sissies
• So You Think I Shouldn’t Have Had Children by Susan at Learned Happiness
• You Will Not Shame Me – The Stigma of Mental Illness and Prescription Drugs by Christina at Well, in THIS House
• And for general PPD posts check out Ivy's PPD Blog 

 

What the hell does that mean?!?

So... I am not necessarily a believer of paranormal phenomenon, but I don't NOT believe. I'm quite skeptical, but I lean towards believing, let's put it that way.
For a period of a few months, I was finding dimes EVERYwhere, some in quite odd places, especially in my house. (Some examples: the middle of the windowsill in my bedroom, on top of the coffeemaker, between the sheets at the foot of my side of the bed.) I finally mentioned it to my mother, who looked it up and told me it's supposedly a sign from deceased loved ones that you're in a time of transition and that things will work out for the best. I was in a time of transition and this had been the house of my great-grandparents, whom I loved very much. Then the dimes stopped. And now I am finding pennies everywhere, and in odd places, especially in my house. (The latest was the couch cushion I had my head on, which was empty when I left the room, but had a penny on the middle of it when I returned. The dogs were out in the kitchen with me, the cats were upstairs, and nobody else was in the house.) But I can't find anything on the internet of what it might be a "sign" other than "pennies from heaven"--well, what does that mean?? It could mean anything from "I'm thinking of you" to "Stop being such a cheapskate." If you have ever heard what the specific meaning of the penny might be, feel free to leave me a comment.

Mental Health

Just a quick note because I haven't posted in forever.
I saw this post on Anderson Live's Facebook page. The post and the ignorant comments enrage and sadden me. I responded (see below) and directed people to my site if they have questions about ECT. So I wanted tot put the links at the top to make it easier to find than scrolling through all of my tags.

• Find all of my ECT-related posts here
• ...and all of my posts tagged "mental health" here.

My response was as follows:

I read every comment in this thread and I have so much I want to say as a mother of two beautiful, intelligent teenagers and as someone who also has BIOLOGICALLY based mental and physical health issues. Essential oils, the Bible, cellular salts, homeopathy, Scientology, parenting classes, being a vegan, eating cleaner, sucking it up, tucking it away, praying/asking for prayers (did God not give us the ability to diagnose and treat mental illness?? It's like ignoring the life raft and helicopter because "God will save you"), blahblahblah are bullshit and worthless when you have a literal chemical imbalance in your brain which does not allow the correct chemicals to be processed correctly.
I've also been in therapy for around 20 years, and guess what? My meds and ECT have helped me more than any therapist because the day to day stresses I talk to them about (with which they DO help me) are NOT the reason for my mental health issues, my faulty body is. The same as it responsible for the chronic physical illness for which I takes meds. Said meds are what have helped me stay alive and active when the illness I have kills people like me EVERY DAY. Just as mental illness does. (See the connection there??) Should I stop taking these meds and succumb to the symptoms and stay in bed until I die, immobile?? Then why should I stop taking my Effexor, Lamictal and Klonopin?
The hateful and IGNORANT comments and the way the question was phrased by ACLive staff are so offensive as to make me wonder if these people realize what UTTER DAMAGE they are causing by increasing stigma for real and DIAGNOSED mental health issues.
Step one should be DECREASING THE STIGMA! I find it truly hard to believe AC himself chose to tell this story this way when his brother committed suicide while his mother watched and they both spend time working for honesty and openness about mental illness. His staff should be ASHAMED...
Here's my step towards decreasing stigma by being open and honest and speaking truth to the ignorance displayed here: I have MENTAL ILLNESS. I live with it EVERY day and if it were not for medication and two rounds of ECT, I would be dead. My children would be orphans. I know that every one of the ignorant peole commenting has a person in their life with mental illness because 40% of people do. One can only hope if one of these ignorant people is asked for help that they wise the fuck up and learn in what ways they are seriously wrong and delusional about their beliefs because they will have it on their conscious if the friend/family member asks them for help and then dies because the ignorant person remains ignorant and tells the ill person to "suck it up, exercise, and rub some lavender on it."
I could still go on, but most of you probably already got to "tl/dr" but if you need a hand or have questions, please message me. You can also read about ECT from an honest POV at my blog. Tag: ECT at kulma dot blogspot dot com. Not linking bc I don't wanna spam here and if you want to read it, you can type it out yourself.